Samson Pt 06

Samson’s Final Act With Delilah and the Philistines

If you remember last week, we worked through some of it, and what I'd like to do is just read the text again, but we'll start at verse four, because I think before that, we kind of covered the thoughts of that, and this is the final, if you will, the final act, closing curtain, whatever way you wanna consider it.

And this is, of course, his relationship with Delilah as well as the Philistines. So from verse four, we'll read forward. Now, afterward, it happened that he loved a woman in the Valley of Serek whose name was Delilah.

Lords of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, entice him and find out where his great strength lies, and by what means we may overpower him, that we may bind him and afflict him. And every one of us will give you 1 ,100 pieces of silver.

So Delilah said to Samson, please tell me where your great strength lies and what you may be bound to afflict you. Samson said to her, if they bind me with seven fresh bow strings not yet dried, then I shall become weak and be like other men.

So the Lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven fresh bow strings not yet dried, and she bound him with them. Now, there was men lying in wait, staying with her in the room, and she said to them, the Philistines are upon you, Samson, but he broke the bow strings as a strand of yarn breaks when it touches fire, so the secret of his strength was not known.

Then Delilah said to Samson, look, you have mocked me and told me lies. Now, please tell me where you are, tell me what you may be bound with. So he said to her, if they bind me securely with new ropes that have not been used, then I shall become weak and be like other men.

Therefore, Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them and said to him, the Philistines are upon you, Samson. And there were men lying in wait, staying in the room, but he broke them off his arms like a thread.

Then Delilah said to Samson, until now you have mocked me and told me lies, tell me what you may be bound with. He said to her, if you weave seven locks of my head into the web of the loom, so she wove it tightly with the baton on the loom and said to him, the Philistines are upon you, Samson.

But he awoke from his sleep and pulled out the baton and the web from the loom. Then she said to him, how can you say I love you when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me these three times and not told me where your great strength lies.

And it came to pass when she pestered him daily with her words and pressed him so that his soul was vexed to death, that he told her all his heart and said to her, no razor has ever come upon my head for I've been a Nazarite to God from my mother's womb.

If I am shaven, then my strength will leave me and I shall become weak and be like any other man. And when Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sat and called for the Lords of the Philistines saying, come up once more for he has told me all his heart.

And so the Lords of the Philistines came up to her, brought the money in their hand and she lulled him to sleep on her knees and called for a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his head. And she began to torment him and his strength left him.

And she said, the Philistines are upon you, Samson. So he awoke from his sleep and said, I will go out as before at other times and shake myself free but he did not know that the Lord had departed from him.

Then the Philistines took him, put out his eyes and brought him down to Gaza. They bound him with bronze feathers and he became a grinder in the prison. However, the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaven.

Now the Lords of the Philistines gathered together to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon, their God and to rejoice and they said, our God has delivered into our hands, Samson, our enemy. When the people saw him, they praised their God for they said, our God has delivered into our hands our enemy, the destroyer of the land and the one who multiplied our dead.

So it happened when their hearts were merry that they said, call for Samson that he may perform for us. So they called for Samson from the prison and he performed for them and they stationed him between the pillars.

Then Samson said to the lad who held him by the hand, let me feel the pillars which support the temple so that I can lean on them. Now the temple was full of men and women. All the Lords of the Philistines were there.

In fact, it was about 3000 men and women on the roof who watched while Samson performed. And Samson called to the Lord saying, oh Lord God, remember me, I pray, strengthen me, I pray just this once, oh God, that I may with one blow take vengeance on the Philistines for my two eyes.

Samson took hold of the two middle pillars which supported the temple and he braced them against him, one on his right and the other on his left. Samson said, let me die with the Philistines and he pushed with all his might and the temple fell on the Lords and all the people who were in it.

So the dead that were killed at his death were more than he had killed in his life. And his brothers and all his father's household came down and took him and brought him up and buried him between Zorah and Eschatol in the tomb of his father Menorah.

He had judged Israel 20 years. So as we consider this morning, this final words on Samson, if you remember last week, we did consider the first four verses and how he again repeated his desires in finding a woman and what took place.

And then, and now, as I said, we come to this activity with Delilah. And if you remember, what I said to you last week at the close was that it seems as I looked at these verses that as she begins to wear him down, or if you think of it the other way, as God begins to further remove himself from Samson in his relationship, that it just seems to progress.

First she says, please tell me. And then of course he tells her a story. And then the second time it's, you know, please, please, pretty please. And then again, the third time it becomes a more of an indignant kind of thing.

And she says, you've mocked me and made a fool of me. Now tell me. And Samson begins to slowly crack in that way. And finally, as we have read that he gives in and I did remark, and I just will start there that what she says at that point where Delilah says to Samson in verse 15, she said to him, how can you say I love you when your heart is not with me?

You've mocked me these three times and have not told me where your grand strength lies. And I said, and I'll say it again, to me that's a whole lot of hypocrisy in that one, right? You're telling me that you don't love me.

Meanwhile, I'm trying to trade you for 1 ,100 shekels of silver. And in that sense, you know, people who, I guess I'll say it this way, especially concerning Delilah, unbelievers will always do unbelievable things and say the most unbelievable things and not even notice that they themselves are many times the ones responsible for the things they accuse others of.

So these first two responses, it gets closer. And then finally he begins to reveal his heart. And again, just as a question or comment, what was it that when he tells her that if his head is shaved, you and I really believe that Samson really believes that all this is, is a matter of his head.

I wonder if I just stand here and wait for somebody to say so. What is it? Is it, does Samson really believe that everything is involved in his hair? Is the first that as it gets closer, then he says, well, if you do something to my hair, then this, then I'll lose my strength.

What is it? Brother?

His strength wasn't in his hair. Verse says, the Lord pardoned him. Okay.

So what is the relationship of the hair then? Come on, help me.

Well, that's against the Lord. Okay, because of what?

His desires. Right, and was that not in a great sense, the outward manifestation of the Nazirite vow? That what in that sense, among many other things, but that was what separated him in that vow was that he would not have his hair shaved.

So I don't really think any of us could honestly defend the position that Samson just thinks it's got to do with the hair on his head. Does anybody think that, that it's merely only that Samson says, well, if you just cut my hair.

Okay. Think I need a cup of coffee? Want to get up and do some jumping jacks? Okay, so at least we established that. So let's just work through a little bit of it. So we've kind of rehearsed this whole thing with her coming to him and him giving us some information.

And by the way, is he not lying to her, right? We know that the ropes and the bow strings, and because that didn't work before when they tried before to bind him. He knew that that wasn't gonna be the answer.

So not only is he involved in, he's not usually involved in, and think of it, not only is he involved in lust and fornication and disobedience and lying and all these things. And again, I will say this, whether it is a summary thought or just a thought to think about, we need to be really careful about how we consider Samson.

And I think brother Mike had brought it up or me and him were talking about it. It's gonna be very hard for us to understand what's taking place if we only look at it through New Testament arts. Because if we do that, and then the last week I try to, I drew a lot of things on the board and just kind of scattered things about him.

Lance.

Well, I think it also comes that, he has, Delilah, she tests him. I mean, he has to be dumb or in rock to understand, to see that he did it. And then he bound herself, the Philistines are here, but it wasn't a joke.

And the Lord actually gave him time to say, I want you to see the error of your ways here. And he just was too dumb to see it. Or he was blinded to it. And then he finally, getting his hair cut was his last act against what his vow for the father and everything that he was actually sitting here to do for them.

That was his last thing he did against God. And God was like, all right, I'm done with you.

And when you think about it again with Samson, it's at the point where he is, I believe basically at his lowest point, because it's there where he, in that way, separates himself from God who has been with him and had set him apart as a Nazarite from the very beginning.

So it does say she pestered him, but I think there's more to it than just the fact of her constantly trying to wear him down and wear him down and wear him down. There's this physical relationship and it certainly has an outworking, but it's more of the relationship that he has with the God of Israel who has, in that sense, raised him up to be a judge.

Let's just look a little bit further. So in verse 15, how can you say you love me? You've mocked me these three times, not told me where your strength lies and she pestered him. And he told her all his heart.

No razor has ever come upon my head for I have been a Nazarite to God from my mother's womb. And it's interesting now he brings God into it. Here's where he begins to, and I believe this is why she knows, not only from probably his disposition, but all of a sudden now, before it was a couple of bow strings, this, that, and the other thing.

Now he brings in this whole idea of this relationship with God. And he says, I've been a Nazarite from my mother's womb. And if I am shaven, my strength, and I shall become weak like any other man. And then in verse 18, of course, when Delilah saw that, and again, I think part of it is because now she has finally, he has spilled his heart in telling her that his relationship with God is the very thing which gives him that strength to do what he does.

All right, look at verse 19. We need to get through this this morning so we can finish this this week. It says, she lulled him to sleep on her knees and called for a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his head.

And she began to torment him and his strength left him. So I thought about this a little bit. And then I kind of looked at a couple of others who have commented on this. And some suggested that when it says she lulled, does anyone have a different word than lulled?

Mike, what does yours say, bro? She made him go to sleep. Okay, anybody else have anything else? Okay, it could very well be she did more than just say, Samson, why don't you just rest here? That maybe she slipped him some kind of potion to lull him to sleep.

He's confessed her heart. In that sense, she now knows the secret of his strength. And because I can't imagine in one way, he falls asleep and some guy's yanking on his hair, shaving his hair off and he doesn't wake up.

So could it be that there's more to it than she just said, just rest here for a while? That somehow, I mean, we're not gonna say that Delilah is of an upright character. So could it be that she does something to his whatever he has?

And anyway, the result of it is she begins to torment him and his strength left him. And then verse 20 is really pretty, to me, sarcastic and sad. The Philistines are upon you, Samson. So he awoke from his sleep.

And this verse 20, I don't know how y 'all would consider, but to me, this is the most terrifying thought. Look at verse 20. The Philistines are upon you, Samson. So he awoke from his sleep and said, I will go out as before at other times to shake myself free.

He did not know that the Lord had departed from him. And I thought about how sin blinds, how people who are not walking right, as I said, we shouldn't expect people who are not in a right spiritual condition to say right spiritual things because there's a connection between that, right?

But this is the most terrifying thought to me, how just as Jesus said, those that walk in darkness, in a sense, they don't even know they're walking in darkness, right? They think all is well and it's not.

And so when it says that he didn't know that the Lord had departed from him, I take it as he's really in bad shape. And by the way, I'll just say this. I do not believe Samson's a carnal Christian. So let's just leave that thought out of him for a minute.

One of the commentators said this about this state, about this verse. He said this, he said, so strength like beauty is dependent upon contact with God and may ebb away when that is broken. And the man may be unaware of the weakness till he tries his power and utterly fails.

Well, if you begin to think about that, Samson has, he's judged Israel, he's had great conquests and he's at the point now he doesn't even realize that the Lord has departed from him. And now we get into a little bit more of the consequences of that, because again, I know we all believe it, but I'm not so sure we all realize it.

Sin has consequences, right? Does sin have consequences to the child of God as well? Does anybody wanna say that there is no consequences to sin? There surely is. And just a thought, those consequences are determined by God in God's time, according to God's purpose.

In other words, could not have God dealt with Samson at the very beginning when he first started to do his thing? Surely he could have, but God determined, because again, remember God's sovereign. God has raised Samson as a judge.

God has purpose to deliver Israel, even if it's through the means of a Samson. And when God determines, and that's something you and I have to consider, brothers and sisters. God is the one who sets parameters, even for us.

And so the chastening of the Lord comes upon us. You ever get into a situation where something takes place and you begin to say, why this? Why now? Can it not be that that's something that God is chastening us for, for something that took place a long time ago?

Just something to think about, something to consider that, again, it's not always the lightning bolt. And sometimes it could be, brothers and sisters, it could be years. But God will deal with us as children and the discipline of God will always find its way.

So verse 21, the Philistines took him and plucked out his eyes and brought him down to Gaza. They bound him with bronze feathers and he became a grinder in the mill. And you know, when I was reading this, you know what I thought, what Jesus said?

If your eye offend you what? Pluck it out. And you know, and here's what else I thought. If your eye offend you, pluck it out because sometimes if you don't pluck it out, God will. Right? And you think about it, again, I just think it's something that's important for us.

And that's one of the lessons we could learn from Samson. Again, which one of us wanna say to our child growing up, what to one another be? I hope you just like Samson. Right, none of us want, I mean, if you venture down that road, then we need to talk.

But there are still things we can learn. And that's the greatness of God's word is we can learn both from the things that are right and the things that are wrong. What we should do and what we shouldn't do.

So the Philistines take them and it is in that sense a little bit, you think about it, then people will say, karma or whatever, what other junky things people have in this world. But the reality is, many times the very thing that we fail to do in one way or another comes back.

And again, God's gonna get us right. And that's the glorious part of all this, right? God's always gonna get us right because he loves us and he cares for us. And so they pluck out his eyes and bring them down to Gaza.

And in verse 22 is an interesting verse, isn't it? His hair began to grow after it had been shaven. Now, if you really think that it's just his hair, then verse 22 begins to make you think, well, boy, his strength's coming back.

Anybody have any thought about verse 22 real quick? And again, I wanna get through this or we will get through it this morning, but any thoughts about verse 22? Why does the scriptures add the fact that his hair began to grow again?

Prove to him that it wasn't about the hair all along. Because it's not until the Lord comes upon him again at the end there that his strength returns.

Certainly we could think of it that way. And here's a thought, and I'll try to show you, and again, it's my thought as we go through this, that at this point, Samson is, not only was he at the lowest point when he spills his heart to Delilah, but I think this whole reality of his eyes being gouged out, being brought down, ultimately being made sport of and being paraded out after all the great conquest, that maybe there's something else behind this in that Samson is beginning to fully, or better understand what it means to both be charged by God and to be under God's discipline.

Is this perhaps something that we'll see that as we work through the final verses? Because if you look at, just think about it, as the temple is full and he's being made merry, look at verse 28 real quick, we'll come back to it in a second, but I just wanna finish that thought.

Look at verse 28. Samson called to the Lord saying, O Lord God, remember me, I pray, strengthen me just this once, O God. Now, I don't wanna deal with the second part of that verse here, because I think that's a separate thought, but he called upon God, he mentioned the name of God in verse 17, I believe because he calls God and he uses three different names, Adonai, the all powerful one, the almighty, Jehovah, the great coveted God, the great self-existent one, and Elohim, the great creator, in that sense, the more generic word for God.

But all at that point, and I will submit to you that the first half of verse 28, to me is Samson's highest point spiritually, that he is, that there is some sort of not merely remorse for the loss of his eyes, but remorse for his actions, and that there is, in that sense, some sort of repentance working.

Now, I'm not trying to say that Samson has lived an exemplary life. I think we would be way off the mark. But there is something about this where it says his hair began to grow, and now the lords of the Philistines gathered together all for a great sacrifice to Dagon their God and to rejoice in they said.

Now, anybody remember Dagon? Where else did we find Dagon? Anybody remember? You remember when Israel was what? Where was the ark? Remember the Philistines captured the ark and they have the ark. Dagon, what kind of God was he?

Fish God. Fish God. So they say it was pretty much, he had the upper part of a man and the bottom part of a fish, right? He looked like a fish, but he was actually a crying God. Yeah, yeah. He looked like a fish.

Yeah. Yeah, but he was a crying God. Yeah, and he was, so it was this mixed kind of demigod kind of statue. But here's the point. If I could say it this way, God is going to get his vengeance on the Philistines for their worship of their God, even through Samson.

And if you remember what took place, so when the ark was captured, and then I'll just read a few, it says in this first Samuel five, when the Philistines took the ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon and set it up by Dagon.

And when the people of Ashdod arose early in the morning, there was Dagon fallen on his face to the earth before the ark of the Lord. And they took Dagon and they set it up again, remember? And then they arose early the next morning and there was Dagon fallen on his face to the ground before the ark of the Lord and the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were broken off the threshold and only Dagon's torso was left.

So there's a relationship to be had in that they're crying out. And this was again, remember God's purpose. God's purpose is to redeem Israel out of the hands of the Philistines. And they are crediting the capture of Samson to their God and in that sense, ridiculing the true God, right?

Because again, that's what they believe that their God, and that's exactly what they said in verse 24. Our God is delivered into our hands, the destroyer of our land and the one who multiplied our dead.

And then it goes on and we begin to see how it progresses. And I don't really understand the time period. I don't know if we could definitely mark how long this time is. I don't think it's that long, but I don't think it's just an hour either.

Nevertheless, it happened that their hearts were merry, that they said, call for Samson that he may perform before us. And again, I think there's more to it than just ridiculing Samson. It's that they're glorying in Dagon, their God.

And I thought about how the world, real quick, how often the world will point out when supposedly Christians fall, right? And how the world will almost, they love to make it the headlines, right? Mr. So-and-so was caught in an adulterous situation or there was thievery or this, that.

The world, it seems to like to make merry about that, that, oh, you're the people of God? Well, let's bring you out before. You think you're any different than us and you do the same things. And so I think there's a relationship there for us to think about.

So they called for Samson from the prison and he performed and they stationed him between the pillars. Again, it's a sad ending to a, what I would say is a sad account of a judge in Israel and yet a glorious account of how God many times, and I say it many times, how God uses both the deceived and the deceiver to accomplish his purposes.

And even in Psalm 76, it says, "'The wrath of man shall praise you "'and the remainder of wrath you will restrain.'". Just like God says to the ocean, you can go this far but no further. And so now as they are sporting and having their good old time, you can almost picture it, right?

I mean, I'm sure they're not drinking Diet Cokes on the roof, they're making merry and everybody's having a great time. And now Samson is led by the hand of the lad and let me feel the pillars of the temple so I can lean on him.

And the temple was full of men and women. The Lords of the Philistines were there. In fact, there were about 3 ,000 men and women on the roof who watched Samson perform. Well, and I thought about even in church history, right?

When they used to bring the Christians out to feed them before the lions. And even as it's depicted and probably rightfully so how people gather in these stadiums and they get all dressed up to come watch a lion or a beast or an execution and how you can think about that in relationship.

And again, the world will always not only be unashamed of their sin, but they will actually make merry about their sin. Sister.

They were mentioning that in verses 13 and 15, both of them, she accuses him of mockery. Yeah. And my will started turning in, God is not mocked, whatever men shall be. And so that kind of, It's almost like a precursor to the ending.

Yeah, and particularly in not just Delilah feeling mocked, but God was mocked by Samson in that sense, wasn't he? I mean, Samson made light of what God had set out to be very serious thing. Let me just look at verse 28.

So 3 ,000 men on the roof. So here's the interesting, well, here's an interesting way to think or ask you to think about it. So he calls to the Lord saying, Oh Lord God, remember me, I pray, strengthen me.

I pray just this once, oh God, that I may with one blow take vengeance on the Philistines for my two eyes. So I guess we probably can say one of a number of things. We could say Samson is very concerned about the glory of God and how the Philistines have made the God of Israel subject to their God.

And that Samson is at this point, man, he's the hero. He just wants to see God honored and God glorified. I think that's one way to consider it. Another way to consider it is, all Samson really cares about is vengeance.

If you think about what we've been going through in the account of Samson, everything that Samson did, most of what Samson did was an act of what? Retribution, vengeance, his desire to, in essence, get back.

So is those words, oh God, that I may with one blow take vengeance on the Philistines for my two eyes. Can we make a very distinct and clear cut understanding? Is it the glory of God? Is it vengeance?

And by the way, I would lean more, I know that's not a word, but I would lean more towards Samson truly desiring the glory of God. If it said, and again, I don't know exactly what the Hebrew says here.

And I'm sorry, I should have tried to get more of it. That I may with one blow vengeance on the Philistines. And if he would have said, for my two eyes and your glory, it might make me think a little bit different, but he doesn't.

Although he calls out to God and although he calls out in that sense, in the right way to Adonai and Jehovah and Elohim, is he still only concerned with the vengeance that they took his eyes and they're making fun of him?

And I don't expect us to answer that whole question, but I wanted to at least set that before us to consider. And again, and I think brother Mike has brought this out and I've tried to bring it out. It's very difficult for us in our understanding to set our minds in, I mean, we could go back in our minds to these days, but to get the, not only the mindset, but the, if you will, the scriptural mindset of things and activities that take place.

Lance, were you gonna say something?

Yeah, I was thinking in 28 when it says, could it be just because Samson addressed the father the way he's supposed to, and gave him all the honor award to God? Maybe, and God knew his heart. He knew that he wanted vengeance.

He said, all right, since I see that you now know who I am, you do honor me because you addressed me exactly for who I am. I will give you this one thing, even though it's for your eyes. I know it's selfish.

I'm gonna go ahead and grant you this one.

Well, again, I think that's where we all have to be fully persuaded in our own mind. I would be more, I would lean more in that direction if he had said something, or if he had said, Lord grant me this for your glory and for my eyes.

But again, I don't know exactly how it's laid out. And again, I'm sorry, I should have. But as I read this, it says, even though he calls out to the right God, but let me ask you a question. We only got a minute or so left.

Just because people call out to the right God, what if they have the wrong reason for calling out to the right God? Because that certainly happens, right? How many people have said in the gym, oh God, and I'll even address the God in the Bible.

I think they address the God in the Bible. If you'll only do this to me, right? So just because we use right terms, that doesn't always mean that we go and get the results that we think we're gonna get.

I think you also knew his heart then. Well, I know God knows his heart. I knew his heart then.

When we say that a lot of times, we're saying it for our own edification.

Yeah, and in our hearts, and none of us wanna say that our hearts are completely pure when we cry out to God, right?

One eye, yeah. He said, I'll know it for just one of my eyes. Yeah. So let me avenge one of them.

And it's almost a thought, and as I was doing a little background work, that the way that's versed, I mean, the way that's stated, it's almost as if he's saying, you know what? I couldn't get enough vengeance for my two eyes.

Nothing can kind of restore my eyes, but at least for one eye, let me have this vengeance. And I agree with brother Mike that, and that's where I think there's a tendency on our part to want to bring Samson to some sort of good ending, uplifting ending.

Here's the one who gets the glory at the end, God, because God destroys the Philistines. And here's another point, we're just about out of time, where it says that he killed more in his death than what?

In his life? And you know where my mind ran, and you can say I should or shouldn't, I ran to the cross. That Jesus' death killed all his enemies, right? And when he rose. And in that sense, how many were around him during his ministry?

100, something like that, besides the multitude. How many of them come to fruition at Pentecost? So it is not that reality. See, because Samson in a sense is a Christ, isn't he? We just gotta be careful because if we start looking too close, just like every other character in the Bible, many of them are used as types of Christ, but none of them are Christ, are they?

We would certainly look to David as a man after God's own heart. And yet he only goes thus far and no farther, just like God bounds the ocean. There is none like Christ. But Samson does relate in that sense.

And here's another thought, because it just says after he kills them that the family comes up and buries them. But here's another thought. Is not Samson been a picture to us of Israel? How God has brought Israel out of Egypt and what did God continually say about Israel as they came out of Egypt?

Terror rebellious people, they are wandering people no matter what I do for them. They just, again, we talk about it all the time, three days out of Egypt and they wanna go back in bondage so they can eat cucumbers and onions.

And in that sense, Samson as the judge, he's a picture of Israel because Israel is much like this judge. And ultimately, what does God do to Israel? He sends them off into captivity, right? He sends the North off and then he sends the South off.

And he even says to those in the South, you're worse than the ones that I took out before. No, because remember the Northern King that went in 720 or whatever, 722, whatever. And the Southern King didn't fall to 586 or 587, something like that.

But my point is God says that you didn't even turn when you saw what happened to your brothers. And so Samson is a picture of Israel. He's a picture of a man or a woman who follows his own desires, cares nothing about the consequences.

In that sense, I think sometimes unbelievers just think that they're invincible and that there is no accounting. And reality is, as we all know, sin has consequences. So it'll be the end of Samson. And then next week, Brother Mike's gonna begin to take us back in chapter 17 to the end of the book to a time before the actual judges really kicked in.

So maybe even right after Joshua died, or maybe the elders that outdied Joshua, because there's gonna be a continual phrase that's used over and over again. And it's what is said in the beginning of the book of Judges, that there was no king in the land in those days.

And every man did that, which was right in his own eyes. And we'll see how, as Brother Mike brings it out with Micaiah, and we'll go back and forth through it. Any final thoughts before we close this account of Judges?

Remember now, Samson falls off the map for decades, centuries, millennium. And thank God for that verse in Hebrews, by the way.

Yeah, you just kind of wish the verse in Hebrews would have been a little longer, so it tells you what he did to put him in the chamber of faith.